Upon seeing the press release from Dance Mission Theater for The Butterfly Project's Black History Month, an ex-dancer friend and I both asked what constitutes "black dance"? How is it linked to jazz and tap? Or perhaps, a broader question can be asked: what constitutes "American dance"?

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Last edited by Azlan on Sat Jan 28, 2006 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The Many Colors of Black Danceby JENNIFER DUNNING for the New York Times

Today, dance by black choreographers draws on everything from postmodernism to traditional African and Caribbean forms, merged seamlessly with the modern dance they have revivified. A new generation of black choreographers that includes, most notably, Ronald K. Brown, began in the 1990's to look for inspiration in the dance of Africa, both as practiced and transformed by African slaves brought west to America, and as the preserved traditions of Africa today.

published: December 11, 2005

You will need to have access to the NYTimes Archive to read this article:

It's not racism at all. Any ethnic group is bound to inspire art based in its history and culture. There is certainly Jewish art, Mexican art, and Islamic art; there are likewise schools of art identified with cultures that are traditionally (or primarily) white.

_________________"A man's speech must exceed his vocabulary, or what's a metaphor?"

I posted an article in the Modern dance forum about Robert Moses, who is also qualified to answer this question.

I often think about the subject as well and wonder if it is racist to label something "black" dance. I think maybe not. A dance of mine was once labeled "asian" by a college classmate though I had no asian dance in it. I figured it was simply my "Asian sensibility" that made it look somehow different than my classmates' work. There must be a "Black sensibility" as well, though I am unable to define what that would be. The way the music is used? The angle of the heads? I don't know.

Upon seeing the press release from Dance Mission Theater for The Butterfly Project's Black History Month, an ex-dancer friend and I both asked what constitutes "black dance"? How is it linked to jazz and tap? Or perhaps, a broader question can be asked: what constitutes "American dance"?

Does anyone have any thoughts?

I think Dunning explains it well. It might be useful to go at it by posing the diametrically opposite question: How is it that European culture was able to hijack the notion of what dance should be, as if Europeans were annointed with some special dance primogeniture rights in the world? This is not to dis ballet or the folkloric and less folksy traditions of Western Europe, but it does seem a little strange to be inquiring about the definition and authenticity of the term "Black dance." This is a genre which has its roots in Yoruba ritual dances brought to Cuba and Haiti, the impact of slavery on the African-American population in the United States, including the use of a wide variety of music--blues, jazz, gospel, hip hop, rap and ragtime--that many non-Black choreographers use also, and the imposition of certain oppressive, unreasonable, dismissive and trivializing, as well as romantic constraints and expectations on Black "entertainers." This is perhaps best exemplified in Ben Vereen's Pagliacci-like rendering of Bert Williams, complete with blackface (Williams was light-skinned and compelled to darken his skin when he danced), at the Reagan inaugural ball, which drew criticism from those inclined toward "radical" critiques. Included in this same broad genre is the inventiveness of Kathryn Dunham (who drew on her background in anthropology to infuse her work with historical authenticity), the Modern Dance tilt of Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison and Donald McKayle, the balletic gyrotechnics of Alonso King and the Balanchine-influenced and supported DTH, post-apartheid South African ballet, and the performance art creativity of Robert Henry Johnson, Robert Moses, and Bill T. Jones. Now to the stage from one of the most beleaguered nations on the African continent comes Faustin Linyekula and Studio Kabako, inflecting modern African culture and sensibility into the body of work. Yes, I'd say that there's such a thing as "Black Dance." It doesn't stand alone; it is not immune to European influence or technique (but neither is "white" dance "ethnically cleansed" of influence from other traditions). Why worry? I mean, it's not as if "white" dance sets some kind of bar for other or older traditions to meet, match or surpass

When I first saw this thread, I thought, “oh here we go again.” But then I thought, “at least the festival isn’t the African-American choreographers festival.”
To say that a choreographer is influenced by, or drawing from African, or Cuban, or Caribbean traditional dance is not racist. To say that a choreographer is African simplybecause he's black IS a racist statement. If I created a piece would it be Ashkenazi, or Dutch, or Estonian, simply because I'm white?
Certainly many black American choreographers draw inspiration from African forms of dance. White choreographers have drawn from folk dance (interesting that white = folk while black = African). So what is black dance? What is white dance? Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s not. Kabuki = Japanese traditional dance. That’s easy. Black dance = ?? Not so easy. How about we just go to a festival that showcases choreographers who happen to be black, and see what they come up with?

I’m glad that the festival is using terminology that is more direct. It’s a festival celebrating choreographers who happen to have “black” skin. Just because I’m white doesn’t mean I don’t “get it.” Nor does it mean I have to coo over the wonderful African-ness of it.

At the risk of posing this in political terms and risking a lockdown, isn't it important to distinguish between the Black nationality (hence use of capital B) and race in this discussion? An oppressed nationality differs in its social experience from a nationality (Dutch, Estonian, Welsh, etc.) precisely because it is ghettoized, and deprived of the full access to rights and entitlements of the majority. That specific social experience is going to be reflected in a shared artistic vocabulary. African-ness is not so much a biological designation, as a social one, in circumstances where Africa has been tied hand and foot to a privileged social class of a different race than the majority of its inhabitants. It is obviously a different experience to have risen up from slavery, where your ancestors were bought and sold and the families they came from rent apart, and the languages they spoke, forcibly extinguished, than it is even to come over from Europe in steerage class with not a nickel in your pocket. That's why I think the designation "Black" dance is important to keep for as long as it has significance not in amorphous terms of "non-white" people, so much as those whose work is represented by it. Again, the reason it doesn't develop in isolation is that people have fought and died to break down segregation, discrimination and the other "ations" that imposed long periods of isolation, and that is to be celebrated. Both (seemingly contradictory) phenomena can exist side by side, can they not?

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